Rubio's defense of the President's comments is at odds with the opinions of some of his colleagues in the Senate - including Republicans - who criticized Trump for the harsh rhetoric.

North Korea, pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, accuses the Washington of devising a "preventive war" and has said any plans to execute this would be met with an "all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the USA mainland". "Let's never forget that", Bolton said in the tweet that Trump retweeted.

The president's retweets about his rhetoric Tuesday come as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was urging calm.

The president's fiery rhetoric came as tensions mounted between the U.S. and North Korea. Tillerson said Wednesday as he returned from an Asia trip he doesn't believe there is "any imminent threat".

He insisted that nothing has changed over the past 24 hours that would make a military response to the dispute more likely adding that "the American people should sleep well at night".

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, made the comments to the BBC amid reports of division within the Trump administration on how to handle North Korea.